I tend to over-plan; or as I might argue, properly plan…

Vacations, large purchases, where we’ll go to eat. These come with quite a bit of research and prep. After all, if you’re making an investment of time & money, don’t you want it to have a strong ROI!? (Ok, I’ve only been off of work for like 3 days…)

The amount of prep I’ve done so far for Kilimanjaro has been astronomical. Everything from choosing the tour company, route, gear list, gear, flights, & food.  Then there’s the: how to train, actual training, what to do after the hike, recovery. And of course: watching videos, reading articles, and meeting folks who completed the hike. Needless to say, planning mode has been in overdrive.

Eight weeks of sabbatical is a long time. And yet, I’m sure it will go by instantaneously. That’s Einstein’s theory of relativity, in a nutshell btw. I wanted to spend it in an incredibly meaningful way. Getting out of my comfort zone, spending time with friends & family, and just really enjoying the time off. The first big thing I added to my sabbatical list was Kili (yes, I’m now on a first name basis with a mountain). Then came the cruise. I wanted to find a few other things to take me out of my comfort zone, that didn’t require a ton of mental energy to plan.

I don’t remember where it came from but I landed on an idea of just going to the airport, bags packed, and getting on the next flight out. The only planning I did was a quick google search “Can you book random flights from an airport counter”. Google said yes (but in some very on the nose foreshadowing, it turns out ‘no’). Well at least at O’hare terminal 1, United counter.  Maybe other airlines are a bit more adventurous. 

Lemme tell ya, my anxiety walking up to the counter was higher thank Kili’s peak. For no real reason, other than maybe the random employee who I will never see again judging me for asking about a random flight. But I got a surprise hype crew. There was this group of women who heard what I was doing and just started hyping me up. Telling me to ‘live it up’ and ‘LET’S GO!!’ They’re headed to Italy on a mission trip and were delayed overnight due to the airplane fire.

Anyway:

It was my turn, I approached the counter, and told the rep what I was trying to do. And then I was told in a friendly way, “they don’t really do that and I’ll have to call customer service.” So I called customer service, and in maybe the biggest misnomer of all time, they offered NO service and didn’t treat me like a customer at all. Basically said, if I don’t have a destination, don’t waste their time. 

::Reflecting:: Maybe it’s these types of poor human interactions that lead people to doing things facelessly via internet. Then the internet method works and it furthers the desire to avoid actually talking to anyone. Vicious cycle.

And in this case the internet method worked! Google flights just let me say when I wanted to go and showed me all the options. So I cashed in my united points and booked my flights, headed through security and boarded a plan to….. be continued of course 🙂